Comic-Con may officially take place inside the convention center, but downtown San Diego fills up with unique experiences based around some of the hottest properties in pop culture. Celebrating the upcoming release of the show’s 22nd season on September 26th, Comedy Central brought South Park to the show in a big way. Not only do they have a big booth on the floor based around member berries, but there’s an escape room at the San Diego Wine Center directly across the street from the convention center. It will be open from 9:30-8:00 on Friday and Saturday on 9:30-5:00 on Sunday.

In groups of ten, people have ten minutes to escape the dreaded classroom. Everyone piles into the room and sits at a desk for the bell to ring. Once the bell rang, we were all opening drawers, flipping things over and moving objects desperately trying to escape the room. The group before us was the first to solve the puzzle that day, so the pressure was on for us to keep the momentum going. Without ruining the experience for anyone else who may be trying to see the escape room this weekend in San Diego or if Comedy Central brings it on the road, I’ll just say it’s a lot of fun. I’ve done a few other escape rooms and this one does a great job at making sure the whole team is communicating and sharing the information they gathered from each new clue. There are lazers, locks and secret words, so whoever designed this experience did a great job integrating various types of brain teasers.

The classroom looked like it was straight out of the show, but contestants don’t need to be long-term fans to solve any of the puzzles or escape the class room. As we progressed through the puzzle, Cartman’s voice rang over the intercom to mock and egg us on. Unfortunately, my group was literally filling in the answer for the final puzzle as the final bell rang, so we weren’t able to escape, It’s a fun experience and there’s a photo room with a few South Park themed carnival games for people to check out once they’re done.